Ghost of the Guadalupe Mountains: Jaguars have been spotted in national park for more than a century

'The cat was blacker than the pit of Hades but it made no move toward her during the few minutes she remained'

By Valerie Cranston

Special to the Current-Argus

Posted:
01/12/2014 07:05:49 AM MST

This is a photo of a black panther taken from a web site online. (Photo courtesy of blackpantheranimal.com)

Have the Guadalupe Mountains been home to the black panther in the late 1800s and 1900s? Some say yes and sightings have been recorded. Others discount the black cat's existence in the mountain range.

A chapter in W.C. Jameson's book "Legend and Lore of the Guadalupe Mountains" tells of several encounters and sightings of a black panther.

The first known sighting took place in the 1940s when a rancher in Dog Canyon watched a black panther creep from its hiding place in a nearby arroyo and leap into a herd of grazing sheep. After killing a lamb, the black cat clutched his kill in his mouth and disappeared up the slope of Manzanita Ridge, explained Jameson.

"Since that time, sightings of a large black cat in the Guadalupes, though not frequent, have occurred," Jameson wrote. "Ranchers, forest service employees, hunters, hikers and campers have reported encountering a black mountain lion in and near the range for over six decades."

Other documented sightings along with the shooting of black panthers date back to the late 1800s. In the book, "Pearl of the Pecos," complied by Lee Myers, there are numerous newspaper accounts mentioning the elusive black cat and bounty received for its killing.

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On Sept. 6, 1890, in the Eddy Argus a reporter wrote an account of panthers and mountain lions. It read: "L.T. Ward of Dark Canon, who was in town this week, reports crops excellent and stock in fine shape. He says the ranchers would have nothing to complain of if the varmints would let him alone. Panthers and mountain lions are numerous and ravenous, and are continually committing bold depredations. Mr. Ward says there are many bears in Dark Canon and thousands of game."

On Nov. 18, 1892, an Eddy Argus reporter wrote, "Jeff Chisum, chief cow puncher of the Eddy Bissel Company, sent in last Tuesday a young mountain lion or panther. It weighed 30 pounds. Mr. Eddy will have it mounted. Chisum killed the animal with a stone. The panther, like a coyote, can always be run down on horseback, and when frightened will squat upon the ground and can be approached and stoned."

On Jan. 27, 1893, a reporter for the Eddy Argus reported: "John Dunaway killed a big panther in Dark Canon a few days ago and got a bounty of $5 thereon."

A forest ranger documented a story that took place in the late 1950s when he was followed for three days in the Guadalupe Mountains by what he referred to as a black mountain lion. In telling his story he made it clear that the black cat never threatened him. It just seemed to be curious.

Many locals remember or knew long time Pine Springs resident Bertha Glover and her husband Walter Glover. She related a story to Jameson about her encounter with a black panther one night in 1960.

"As she was carrying garbage to a location behind her cafe to be burned, she said she saw a lion seated on a rock about 20 yards away," Jameson wrote. "Glover said the cat was blacker than the pit of Hades but it made no move toward her during the few minutes she remained."

Jameson added the lion simply watched Glover dump the trash into an old oil drum and return for more. However, when she returned with more, the lion was gone.

Glover saw another panther in 1966. This time she was just sitting on the porch of their Pine Springs cafe. She watched the black cat chase a jack rabbit across the flat ground near the old Butterfield Overland Mail station ruins some 100 yards away, wrote Jameson.

The next reported sighting was in 1976 by a backpacker in the high country of the Guadalupe Mountains. The backpacker reported that while exploring the range, he was followed by a black mountain lion. When he stopped the lion stopped, always staying some 20 yards away.

"When he continued, the lion fell in step, always maintaining the same distance," Jameson wrote. "He said the black cat was lighter and thinner than a normal mountain lion and the skull was shaped differently."

The last night the backpacker was in the mountains, he watched the black cat from his tent doorway. The black panther remained in the same place, a small moonlit clearing. The backpacker eventually fell asleep only to be awakened by a noise at the door of his tent.

"He opened his eyes and saw the face of the panther pushing into the screen door flap as if to get a better view of what was within," Jameson wrote. "The camper grabbed his camera and took a photograph. The flash frightened the animal away. He saw no more of it after that. The photograph, after it was developed, showed only a blur."

The last recorded sighting was in 1990, also in the Guadalupe Mountains. A couple of high country backpackers returned from a two day and two night stay in the range and described an encounter with a black panther. The cat, as in the other reports, sat quietly at a safe distance. It made no attempt to approach. the campers.

When one of the men walked toward the panther, it casually rose and walked several paces away, wrote Jameson.

"The panther goes by many other different names in the Western Hemisphere such as puma, painter, catamount, cougar, lion and mountain lion," Jameson wrote adding populations are decreasing as human settlement increases.

According to BlackPantherAnimal.com, Black panthers, like all members of the big cat family, have no greater enemy in nature than man himself. Farmers have killed them with poison and traps to protect livestock or people. Hunters have killed them for adventure and for their beautiful and precious furs.

Jameson writes that when early Guadalupe Mountains ranchers began bringing large herds of sheep and goats into the area, their problems with the mountains lions started. The lions learned quickly that the sheep and goats were easier prey than the deer and elk.

"Soon, according to the ranchers, the cats were reducing the herds at an alarming rate," wrote Jameson.

Jameson added that one Dog Canyon rancher claimed he witnessed a large mountain lion run into the middle of a sheep herd and indiscriminately slaughter 20 of them in just a matter of minutes. The rancher said it looked like the lion was just having fun.

"Consistent and enduring attacks on Guadalupe livestock invited the hunting and trapping of mountain lions, and soon the population of these big cats in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas dwindled sharply," Jameson wrote. "Though hundreds of mountain lions were killed between the 1920s and the present, not a single one of them was black."

The mountain lion was placed on the federal government's endangered species list. However, today, ranchers still report lion predation and in spite of legislation continue to hunt them.

Jameson wrote that despite all of the sightings, the black panther has never been authentically recorded in North America, according to late lion hunter, researcher and writer Jim Bob Tinsley. Each year reports of black panther sightings are filed from Florida to Arizona. However, one has yet to be killed, captured, or photographed.

It is possible that one migrated from Mexico into the Guadalupes. Jaguars have been sighted along the Rio Grande in recent years some 100 miles to the south of the Guadalupe Mountains.

Jameson believes it is possible, as others have suggested, that one or more black panthers migrated from Mexico and took up residence in the Guadalupe Mountains.

"It is also possible they are producing offspring. It is rare for a mountain lion to live more than 20 years in the wild, and since black panthers have been reported in the range since the 1940s, the consensus is that several must have resided in the area over the years," Jameson wrote.

Do they still reside in the Guadalupe Mountains today? The answer to that question remains a mystery still today.